AMD Resets Its Chips for Changing Mobile Wars

Mobile devices continue to change the landscape for computer makers and their suppliers. The latest response comes from Advanced Micro Devices, in three new lines of chips and a nuance in nomenclature.

AMD Intel 's smaller rival in microprocessors for desktop and laptop PCs, is continuing to drive down the power consumption of its chips to help place more of them in smaller devices. The company is announcing new products Thursday that draw as little as 3.9 watts, down from about 9 watts in prior versions–a threshold that allows their use in devices that don’t need a cooling fan, a key attribute of most tablets.

The company has long tried to differentiate itself from Intel with sophisticated graphics circuitry for videogames and other applications, which it combines with the core circuitry of processors on chips it calls APUs, or accelerated processing units. Coupled with lower power consumption, AMD is making a case that one of its new chip lines–code-named Temash–will spur the creation of a new market niche for “performance” tablets.

At the same time, AMD is importing an additional piece of jargon that is common in discussions of smartphones and tablets–SoC, for system on a chip. Such products combine even more functions on a single piece of silicon to save space and power in gadgets that are smaller than laptops.

Until the latest versions, the company’s mobile APUs required an accessory chip to pass data to other components in a system. Now AMD is building that circuitry into new mobile chips to earn the SoC moniker.

AMD says the processor cores on its Temash models are up to 172% faster than prior chips, with doubled graphics performance. Battery life, at up to 12 hours during idle mode, is also substantially better, the company says.

The company is introducing two other chip families for larger devices Thursday, both with their own claimed gains in speed and battery life. One is code-named Kabini, and targeted at laptops at mainstream price points. The other, code-named Richland, is aimed at higher-end notebooks.

AMD is disclosing the new options as a prelude to the big Computex trade show in Taiwan, an event in June designed to set the PC industry’s agenda for the second half of the year. Intel is not likely to make AMD’s job easy; the industry trendsetter is expected to lay out its own new lineup of power-sipping chips at the show.

A broader issue is that both companies face an uphill battle in generating consumer excitement, as tablets and the fast-growing ecosystem of mobile applications that exploit them draw the focus of many hardware and software developers.

“The PC industry got a lot wrong in 2012,” says John Taylor, an AMD vice president. “Where is the stuff that makes the hair on the back of your head stand up? None of it is happening in PCs.”

One of the biggest disappointments is the slow uptake of Windows 8, the software that was expected to help computer makers start delivering devices that can be operated by touch gestures, like tablets. The percentage of notebooks that arrived with touchscreens last year was relatively small, and those that had them tended to be expensive.

AMD and its customers hope to be aided by the coming release of Windows 8.1–the update to the original touch-based operating system–as well as wider use of touchscreens on new portables and lower price points for them.

Intel, which is updating both its flagship Core and Atom product lines, has been particularly outspoken in pitching the notion of convertible devices that can be run in tablet or clamshell modes. Many will likely sport its UltraBook branding, which comes along with marketing incentives for companies that follow Intel’s design dictates.

But AMD plans to stick with a contrary strategy of minimizing its own identity in favor of computer makers’ own branding, preparing to let them take the limelight while modifying its products to meet their specific needs.